The Many Emotions of God
Triumph Over Defeat
Eileen Renders April 2024
Similar to the paradox of how surrendering is often the answer to setting one free, so also, might this concept apply to “Turning the other cheek”. Moreover, allowing our hearts to remain open and loving after we have been deceived and hurt by a loved one whom we had placed our trust in.
In reviewing our choices, we can allow feelings of hatred, rejection, or revenge to harden our hearts and shut the door of our hearts to trust anyone again in the future. Or, we can turn the other cheek, forgive one’s offenses toward us, and show mercy. This latter choice allows us to seek goodness in our lives, go out on a limb, and once again extend trust and mercy.
Sometimes, we may ask ourselves “Why should I trust again, I learned my lesson.” Yet this is exactly the attitude that festers and grows dark within our spirit, creating an unpathetic being that seeks respect, honesty, and appreciation that they are no longer able to extend to another.
Life has a way, however, of returning the same type of energy that we project. Therefore, we can reap little love from others, nor a sense of “belonging”, or “fitting in.”
Always looking at Christ as our example, and as our guide, we know how He gave His all to save us by His acceptance of His persecutors' sentencing of His painful Crucifixion. He accepted our rejection of Him, our disbelief in Him, and surrendered His life to a humiliating, and most painful death on the Cross. His sacrifice allowed all of us to follow His example and save our souls. Jesus did indeed triumph over defeat. In accepting this fate as His Father in heaven asked of Jesus, He showed us how to accept the errors of others and forgive.
It is quite natural to struggle with forgiving as it often is only done without forgetting the hurt and pain we endured, and then forgave. As our Father in heaven has taught us, however forgiving does not require that we accept that individual back into our arms and spend time with them. We can see this in God because we have learned that the wicked and deceitful who refuse to repent and live a life that respects His Ten Commandments are told that we will also not be welcomed into the arms of Christ when our life here on earth has expired.
We are asked to pray for all who need prayer for conversion, that they too may one day look forward to the eternity that God offers to all who follow His word.